The Zürcher Sing-Akademie (= ZSA) was founded in 2011 as a professional choir attached to the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Switzerland. The choir now looks back to six highly successful seasons, which featured celebrated appearances with the Tonhalle Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Argovia Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Kammerorchester Basel and Musikkollegium Winterthur. Conductors have included Giovanni Antonini, Daniel Barenboim, Ivor Bolton, Lionel Bringuier, the late Frans Brüggen, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, Pablo Heras-Casado, René Jacobs, Neeme Järvi, Ton Koopman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Donald Runnicles and David Zinman.
In 2014 the Zürcher Sing-Akademie performed J.S. Bach’s St. John’s Passion (BWV 245) at the BBC Proms in a much-acclaimed performance with the Zürcher Kammerorchester under Roger Norrington. The choir has toured in Germany, Italy, Israel, Lebanon, the Netherlands, and many different regions of Switzerland. New artistic partnerships in the 2017-2018 season include Freiburger Barockorchester (conductor René Jacobs) and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra (conductor James Gaffigan), with a visit to Asia and a major European tour.
The flexibility of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie allows the choir to work in the fixed chamber-choir setting and to expand well beyond that without loss of identity. Besides its own concert programmes, the Zürcher Sing-Akademie organizes special activities, which include voice coaching sessions and programmes for and with amateur and semi-professional singers.
Florian Helgath was appointed Artistic Director of the Zürcher Sing-Akademie from the summer of 2017. |